By way of background, in a typical electrophotographic printing process, a photoconductive member, either a belt or drum, is charged to a substantially uniform potential so as to sensitize the surface thereof. The charged portion of the photoconductive member is exposed to a light image of an original document being reproduced. Exposure of the charged photoconductive member selectively dissipates the charge thereon in the irradiated areas. This records an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive member corresponding to the informational areas contained within the original document. After the electrostatic latent image is recorded on the photoconductive member, the latent image is developed by bringing a developer material into contact therewith. Generally, the developer material is made from toner particles adhering triboelectrically to carrier granules. The toner particles are attracted from the carrier granules to the latent image forming a toner powder image on the photoconductive member to a copy sheet. Heat is applied to the toner particles to permanently affix the powder image to the copy sheet.
After extended use and contact with elevated heat and somewhat abrasive materials such as carrier granules and toner and passing through the various process stations, the photoconductive member becomes worn and in need of replacement. Care must be taken in removing the old photoconductive unit and in installing the new replacement unit so that the photoconductive unit and surrounding machine components are not seriously damaged.
Generally, drum photoreceptor replaceable units have a plastic shroud for physical protection and light damage to the light-sensitive unit. However, it is typical, in order to remove the drum unit from the protective housing, a gap in the plastic housing must be made for a handle or other type of drum removal device. This gap is often covered with a pull strip, an opaque, adhesive-backed paper strip, which is stuck over the gap to the plastic housing and must be removed from the housing before the drum unit can be removed. Once the light-blocking strip has been removed, the light-blocking protection for the drum unit is gone. Additionally, if the adhesive fails on the strip then small pieces of the adhesive could end up on the drum unit causing serious image quality defects.